Pembroke ON

prepare its city-owned land for business. “We have a 28-acre parcel of land in our industrial park,” Salovaara reports. “We’ve done all the back- ground work to make it shovel-ready; we’ve done all the environmental assessments and we’ve got all the services in place –water, hydro, gas, and a fully redundant, fiber optic loop.” In addition, as one of 40 sites across Ontario that are certified as investment-ready, the Prov- ince helps to market Pembroke at international convocations. It also pays for half of its market- ing costs when the city advertises its benefits to realtors and business owners across Canada and the United States. Some of that marketing has already paid off, according to Salovaara, who explains that an out- of-town developer just purchased a $1.5 million portfolio of downtown real estate.“When they purchased it, it was not worth a whole lot because the buildings were not in good shape,” she says. “But they’ve already started to completely transform the spaces.Our grant is helping them out–they get $5,000 for a storefront that they’re spending $60,000 on. So, it’s encouraging some of our local investors to buymore properties, as well, and to fix them up.” “We consider everyone coming into the city as partners and that has really helped us, because nowwe have developers who have a fair amount of money and who are investing in the city and staying here,” adds LeMay.“A fewyears ago, business people were buying up city blocks in small municipalities and then using them as a straight tax write-off, and Pembroke happened to be one of those. So, our main street was basically a derelict area. But in the last three years, it has really improved.We’re open and willing to do what we can to make sure that a business feels welcome here, but also, it’s important for us to retain what we have.That’s why we like to develop these partnerships and work closely with the various businesses coming into the city.” Another advantage for new businesses that want to establish themselves in Pembroke is the pres- ence of Algonquin College’s new Pembroke cam- Forest Products & Construction LTD. G.P. SPLINTER Pembroke, ON 39 Forest Valley Lane n Pembroke, ON K8A 6W6 EQUIPMENT RENTALS l TOP SOIL l GRAVEL l SAND FILL l SEPTIC INSTALLATIONS & REPAIRS Fully Licensed & Insured // Free Estimates GREG: 613.639.3559 // OFFICE: 613.732.3382 PREFERRED VENDOR n G.P. Splinter Forest Products Ltd. g.splinter@nrtco.net PEMBROKE, ONTARIO pus, which opened in 2012 on the city’s water- front. It began with 300 full-time students, and today it has 1,000, 50 percent of whom come from out of town.The college adds to the cultural life of the city,while providing an educated workforce for the area.Not coincidentally, the growth of the college has spurred investment in student housing. Today, there are three privately-run student resi- dences in the city. The city has also made significant improvements to its infrastructure, including a $1.2 million pro- gram to replace all of its street lights with LED technology–a move which has already saved some $60,000 on street lighting maintenance and prom- ises to ameliorate all of the city’s upfront costs by 2022. It has done some wastewater plant upgrades, and it has invested in solar panels. In 2015, it also saw the establishment of a newOntario Provincial Police station at the city’s industrial park, and a brand new fire station will open there this summer. “This is a huge investment that the city is making in our local services,” says Tourism and Communi- cations Officer,Heather Sutherland.“Our previous fire station had been built in 1860 with an addition added in 1963.They have outgrown their facility.We have a new aerial fire truck that currently has to be stored in a different facility because it doesn’t fit in our current fire hall.The new hall will be ready in June; it’s a $5 million,modern facility, fully funded by the City of Pembroke.” Speaking of tourism, Sutherland says that Pem- broke is currently in the process of creating a strate- gy for the city,“with goals and projects over the next one to two years to further build our tourism sector. It’s a new focus for the city, now,” she relates. “The first couple of years, the stress was on eco- nomic development and trying to get businesses within the city,which is working quitewell,”says LeMay.“But also,we found that we needed some help as far as tourism is concerned, so we hired Heather as a tourism person and nowmarketing is one of the main strategies that we’re getting to work on. When we look at where we are on the Ottawa Riv- er,we have a gold mine, here.We have the largest group of heritage murals in the Province of Ontario, and the area is the whitewater capital of the Prov- ince. So,we’ve got a million things that we have to start marketing.That’s going to be a focus as we move forward.We are on the cusp and things are going well, and we just want to keep working at it.”